Very sour, very quickly

[battler]

Hi guys,

Well, just when I thought I was a clever kombucha kid, I'm beat.

My first ever brew was put down 11 days ago with a nice white scoby, and a taste now revealed it is really quite sour.

My recipe was two bags of black tea and one bag of green left to steep hot and then left steeping overnight, 1/4 cup of sugar and filtered water for about 1.5L (about 1.58 quarts) (I followed a recipe)

As it I grew a nice little scoby on top (with the mother sinking to the bottom) I'd read that you're not meant to disturb it much, and was away from the brew, so I held off tasting until today.

Be aware this is Australia - the temperature range here is mostly 18-30 although the house is generally at a more even temperature.

That's quite warm for KT, but not over the top, but still... it's really sour.

It would appear I've activated my yeast too quickly and the evidence would suggest that I've left it too long, and possibly made the tea too strong initially.

This is the best info I can find about warm temperatures.

http://kombuchatea.tribe.net/thread/0b8224de-eeb7-494b-acdc-97ff59617cb1

Does anyone have any suggestions for what I should do with my too sour brew now, and for avoiding similar problems? I should taste earlier, that's for sure. Off to a bad start - any advice appreciated.

 

[amcardon]

I brew for 5-7 days (check with pH strips, shooting for 3-3.5 personally) so a shorter brew time might be all you need to change. Also, you're correct that you shouldn't disturb the booch, but that means don't move it around, stir it, etc... You can absolutely taste it along the way to find your "sweet spot" brew time. Some people use a clean straw, some (like me) use a spoon and gently move the edge of the scoby out of the way.

Anyway, run another batch, but start checking daily after 5 days to find your preferred taste. For your sour batch you can either flavor/bottle or use it as a vinegar in cooking, smoothies, etc... Or, heck, just toss it out, you didn't lose much from a tester batch; I've thrown out much more!

 

[zipper8650]

try upping your sugar a bit.

 

[battler]

I brew for 5-7 days (check with pH strips, shooting for 3-3.5 personally) so a shorter brew time might be all you need to change. Also, you're correct that you shouldn't disturb the booch, but that means don't move it around, stir it, etc... You can absolutely taste it along the way to find your "sweet spot" brew time. Some people use a clean straw, some (like me) use a spoon and gently move the edge of the scoby out of the way.

Anyway, run another batch, but start checking daily after 5 days to find your preferred taste. For your sour batch you can either flavor/bottle or use it as a vinegar in cooking, smoothies, etc... Or, heck, just toss it out, you didn't lose much from a tester batch; I've thrown out much more!

- Check on the shorter brew time. And thanks for the gently gently confirmation, but yeah, gotta test it

- Will do - I'll use the sour for new starter I guess.

try upping your sugar a bit.

- You know, I was thinking I'd unbalanced the equation with sugar, as the yeast got ahead and made more acetic acid. So, I was thinking of doing half the sugar day one and then adding half the sugar on day 3 to make the yeast a little less active.